Wowhead's Mythic+ Dungeon Invitational Q&A

With the Mythic+ Dungeon Invitational underway, Wowhead got together with some of the organizers of the event and asked a few questions submitted by the dungeon community. In this post you'll find answers to some of our top questions. Additional questions we submitted were either already recently answered or will be at the time of the event.

Q: Are those competing required to have a team composed of: 1 Tank, 1 Healer & 3 Dps or are they allowed to change it up a bit such as 1 Tank & 4 Dps?

A: Groups will be free to pick any combination of classes and specializations, no set requirements. During the broadcast last year (Tespa’s Collegiate Dungeon race, available on Twitch) we had a team run with no healer and it worked out for them, but a lot has changed since then. We’ll see what these teams come up with!

Q: How is gearing on the tournament realms going to work? Will there be a item level scaling threshold? Will there be relics? Legendaries? How many traits in each Artifact weapon? Will we be able to have gear we have on live or will it be more of like PTR where we can obtain all gear off a vendor including relics and swap accordingly?

A: Thankfully, because this portion of the tournament takes place on specially configured Event Realms, we have full control over gear and artifacts. We’ll have vendors setup with consumables, relics, legendaries, and raid gear; everything our players will need to be at their peak performance. On top of that, once they’re inside the dungeon their gear item level will be normalized, and so will their artifact item level. We’ll have full details on the specific item level and artifact level we’ll scale to as we get closer to the broadcast.

Q: Some instances & some bosses are way harder than others, even on Fortified. Particular bosses at higher levels can one shot a tank, making some keys just impossible to complete pass a certain level. Does Blizzard look at +24 keys on a Fortified week vs the 22/23 keys on a Tyrannical week? How does Blizzard measure the keys they will be taking for the competition?

A: Certain affix combinations can definitely make some dungeons harder than others, especially on live realms where you have the same affix set for the whole week. For this event, we’ll be selecting affix combinations that strike a good balance between difficulty and visual cues. We want our viewers to immediately see the direct impact of affixes, so we’ve stayed away from things like Skittish, and instead selected custom combinations that have strong visual components like Explosive, Quaking, and Volcanic (among others).

Q: The Mythic + Competition is a great idea but what was the reasoning for pushing it so fast after the release of Tomb of Sargeras? Mythic + is to most people PvE content - most of the players that want to compete that have the skill and dedication and will push the higher keys...but they had to focus not only on the Raid content that was just released as well but also on pushing keys for the Invitational. In the future will these line up the same or will they be slightly offset? Such as the release of a new raid, then the Invitational couple months later?

A: We’ve definitely learned a lot about programs like this already, and we can put a lot of that knowledge towards future PvE programs. We wanted to give raiders time to run Tomb of Sargeras and put together their groups, but we may have started it a little too early. One of the major challenges that dictated our timing was getting the Proving Grounds portion wrapped up before 7.3 launched, especially since that patch changed the difficulty of Mythic dungeons again.

Q: How early will those competing know the affixes ahead of time?

A: Players will know all of the affix combinations and when they’re used ahead of time, around two weeks prior to the start of gameplay.

Q: Will there be very particular affixes during the competition or will they be randomized?

A: We’ve hand-picked five different affix combinations that will be used throughout the event. All combinations will be used in a set schedule on broadcast; players will know what the next affix combination is when they’re selecting dungeons to run.

Q: Can players pick different races/factions, how about classes? Are they setup before each round or set at the start of the invitational?

A: Since we’re on special tournament realms, players will be able to setup custom characters in the days and weeks leading up to the tournament. Aside from the hard limit of 12 characters per realm, there’s no restrictions on races, factions, or classes. We wouldn’t be surprised if players make a few different versions of the same class to take advantage of different racial bonuses for different dungeons.

Q: Is utilizing the warlock summoning stone allowed? For example before a pull, a player can zone out, change talents and be summoned back?

A: Once the run begins, players will need to remain inside the dungeon until it’s completed.

Q: What level will the keys start at? And how high will they go?

A: As you probably know, patch 7.3 re-balanced the difficulty levels of Mythic dungeons. Since this event is taking place on 7.3 realms we’ll need to adjust the keystone level compared to what these teams completed in 7.2.5. We’re currently planning on running the entire event on +17 difficulty. We think this level strikes a good balance between speed and difficulty. We want it hard enough that risky plays are rewarded and mistakes are punished, but not so hard that groups have trouble completing the dungeon in-time.

Q: Are players/those competing, allowed to stream on their personal Twitch channels?

A: Streaming is perfectly acceptable during practice sessions before and after tournament bracket play, but we ask that players don’t stream while they’re competing.

A: We’ve setup everything a player could conceivably need in order to be at their full fighting strength. This includes potions, flasks, runes, enchants, gems, relics, legendary items, tier gear, and food.

Q: For Regionals/Finals/Worlds what is the schedule?

A: Regionals will take place the weekends of September 16th and 23rd. Global Top 8, Semi-Finals, and Finals will take place the weekend of September 30th.

Comments

Comment by Xpariah

on 2017-09-07T16:22:41-05:00

Thanks for the Q&A! I wish Blizzard would focus their efforts to promote PvE to raids where the game actually gained notoriety but to each their own. Seems like they have this thing sorted out well enough.

Comment by Averich

on 2017-09-07T16:50:42-05:00

I am kind of disappointed with blizzard considering a +17 difficulty for the event. 17 is not even close to the difficulty of what have have the best teams pushed during the qualifications. It's going to be a huge facerolling through the dungeon for most of the teams, unless they scale the characters power down significantly.

Comment by CausalXXLinkXx

on 2017-09-07T16:52:49-05:00

It would be stupid for them to do 22 equivalents, the tournament would last forever.

Comment by FakeGodz

on 2017-09-07T16:57:47-05:00

I am kind of disappointed with blizzard considering a +17 difficulty for the event. 17 is not even close to the difficulty of what have have the best teams pushed during the qualifications. It's going to be a huge facerolling through the dungeon for most of the teams, unless they scale the characters power down significantly.

Dude, 7.2.5 people can only go as far as +247.3 increases the regular Mythic difficulty (by 20ilvl i believe)

Also did you read the Q&A, at all?They mention ilvl and artifact power scalling... ._.They even mention about 7.3 increases the difficulty of Mythic dungeon...

Comment by NeroRain

on 2017-09-07T18:30:51-05:00

Stupid question, but I didn't see the answer - Will the event be streamed? They mentioned not wanting people to stream it themselves, but didn't see anything specifically about Blizz streaming it.

Comment by FakeGodz

on 2017-09-07T18:47:19-05:00

Stupid question, but I didn't see the answer - Will the event be streamed? They mentioned not wanting people to stream it themselves, but didn't see anything specifically about Blizz streaming it.

Hmmm good questionThe Semi Final and Final will take part in Blizzcon, so atleast we can watch these.

Comment by perculia

on 2017-09-07T18:55:00-05:00

Stupid question, but I didn't see the answer - Will the event be streamed? They mentioned not wanting people to stream it themselves, but didn't see anything specifically about Blizz streaming it.

Hmmm good questionThe Semi Final and Final will take part in Blizzcon, so atleast we can watch these.

Semi Finals and Finals should take place at start of October; the PvP Arena series concludes at BlizzCon.

Comment by ONCHEhap

on 2017-09-07T19:01:13-05:00

I am kind of disappointed with blizzard considering a +17 difficulty for the event. 17 is not even close to the difficulty of what have have the best teams pushed during the qualifications. It's going to be a huge facerolling through the dungeon for most of the teams, unless they scale the characters power down significantly.

ilvl and artifacts will be scaled down to a set levelOutgearing massively content plays a role in pushing keys above 20,this will not be a factor herealso remember that dungeons got buffed with 7.3

Comment by FakeGodz

on 2017-09-07T19:02:33-05:00

Stupid question, but I didn't see the answer - Will the event be streamed? They mentioned not wanting people to stream it themselves, but didn't see anything specifically about Blizz streaming it.

Hmmm good questionThe Semi Final and Final will take part in Blizzcon, so atleast we can watch these.

Semi Finals and Finals should take place at start of October; the PvP Arena series concludes at BlizzCon.I have read somewhere it'll take part in Blizzcon, guess i miss-read it, huh...

But they'll stream it on Blizz's WoW Twitch, so that's that i suppose.

Comment by Gothrix

on 2017-09-07T19:16:05-05:00

Stupid question, but I didn't see the answer - Will the event be streamed? They mentioned not wanting people to stream it themselves, but didn't see anything specifically about Blizz streaming it.

Hmmm good questionThe Semi Final and Final will take part in Blizzcon, so atleast we can watch these.

Semi Finals and Finals should take place at start of October; the PvP Arena series concludes at BlizzCon.

Yeah, as far as I can see it will be the start of October too. Cant wait! :)

Comment by Jimbrooks

on 2017-09-07T20:55:24-05:00

They are also scaling peoples gear and stuff so don't forget that! +17 might sound pretty easy in comparison to +20s top people do, but we don't know how big or small the scaling will be.

Comment by NinjaLooterLoveU

on 2017-09-08T05:11:25-05:00

Where are the patch notes on the World Nerf?

Blizzard applied Personal loot, so now all gold and drop rate is divided by 5.

Comment by NinjaLooterLoveU

on 2017-09-09T15:42:06-05:00

Can't participate if you can't queue for it. /done Next event pls. And don't tell everyone you made Black Temple Timewalking and left out the queue also. WTF Blizzard?

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